


In The Spring I Shed My Skin

by magnetar



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-13
Updated: 2018-05-13
Packaged: 2019-05-06 09:56:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14639421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magnetar/pseuds/magnetar
Summary: It's Kylo Ren in the flesh, stepping inside out of the rain and brushing leaves off his coat, hair damp and sticking to his forehead. Of all the people, the thousands in the city and the regulars to the coffee shop, Kylo Ren is the last person Hux is expecting to see.





	In The Spring I Shed My Skin

**Author's Note:**

> Kind of garbage but whatever. Finnpoe mentioned, so if that ship bothers you don't read I guess. The rating will change for future chapters. Come and yell at me about how bad my writing is @ magnetvrs on tumblr. Please let me know of any spelling errors etc!

‘Friday the 13th,’ Poe says, wiggling his fingers in front of Hux’s face, intimating a ghost, ‘spooky right? You’d better watch out Hugs, karma’s gonna catch up with you.’ Whatever spooky atmosphere he’s trying to build up is at odds with the gentle jazz music played throughout the shop.

‘Yeah, right,’ Hux scoffs, fastening his apron around his waist. While Dameron definitely has a point about his karma, Hux is pretty sure he’s already paid what he’s owed between being disowned by his father and working at this place. Let alone Hux’s past bad luck, the anniversary of the breakup of his first and only real relationship, Hux is pretty convinced he’s set for life even if he is pretty terrible in general.

Dameron seems to sense that he’s not in the mood to joke around – as if he ever is, and heads into the break room after Finn. Hux stares after him for a moment, leaning against the countertop until he hears the faint sound of laughter from the break room. His heart clenches painfully at the sound, he grabs the stack of dishes with a huff and starts loading them into the washer.

He’s not jealous of their relationship exactly – the way they are around each other all jokes, soft looks and even softer kisses when they think nobody’s looking makes Hux’s stomach turn. But he’s jealous of having _somebody_ , a weakness he cannot afford. He sighs, striding across the store to flip the stores sign from closed to open.

He pauses, the plastic sign clasped between his thumb and forefinger, staring out at the street through the frosted glass door. He’d never thought his life would be where it is at this moment – working for just over minimum wage while juggling University studies. Then coming home to his dark and quiet apartment to sleep in his cold bed, empty except for Millicent. Rinse and repeat the next day and the next, he’s become a creature of habit. The order of it calms him as the ordinariness disgusts him, and he can hardly bear it. Being just another ant in the city when he should be running things. As he watches, a downpour of rain starts outside despite the bright sunshine.

He squishes those thoughts under the heel of his boot – they won’t lead anywhere useful, heading back behind the counter and pulling out his cleaning supplies. He eyes the door to the breakroom but can still faintly hear Poe’s and Finn’s voices from inside. Neither seems to be coming back, so he douses the counter in disinfectant and begins scrubbing. Back and forth in even strokes, he loses himself in the menial task until he hears the bell above the door jingle at the same moment as the music over the speaker’s crackles, going out completely for a few seconds before it restarts. He turns, ready to serve the customer except when he does his breath catches in his throat…

Its Kylo _kriffing_ Ren in the flesh, stepping inside out of the rain and brushing leaves off his coat, hair damp and sticking to his forehead. Of all the people, the thousands in the city, the regulars to the coffee shop Kylo Ren is the last person Hux is expecting to see. He’s different, Hux realises with a start, but still unmistakably Ren. He feels his heart thumping in his chest, as anger roots him to the spot – the memories still fresh on his skin.

A ghost in the flesh, the past living and breathing right in front of him in a shitty hipster coffee shop. The neon hair, neon and pastel clothes, and bold black makeup are gone, replaced by soft earthy tones – earthy brown pants, a loose green shirt, a jacket around his shoulders and a leather belt around his waist with an object hanging at his hip. He’s grown his hair out too, it looks softer and fluffier than before, where it brushes his shoulders. Hux feels his cheeks betraying him as he looks Ren up and down, as a hot blush flushes across them.

Ren walks up to the counter as if it’s nothing, stopping next to the display case filled with cakes and pastries while Hux can’t help but stare, still frozen to the spot. His dark eyes are upturned as he studies the drinks menu pinned onto the wall above Hux’s head.

Hux can’t do anything except stare at the pale line of Ren’s neck, the soft curls of his hair brushing against it. He remembers with a shiver running his hand along the pale column, up past Ren’s clavicle, the feel of the smooth and delicate skin there. Pressing his lips against the cool skin, against Ren’s pulse… He risks a glance at the break room door but neither Poe nor Finn show any sign of coming back. Normally he’d bask in the silence but now he wants nothing more than to take his break early, to run away from his problems. Or at least the problem currently studying the drinks board.

‘Oolong tea,’ just the sound of Ren’s voice has Hux suppressing a shudder, jumping towards the register.

‘With milk?’ He manages to grit out, pulling out his notepad to hide his blushing face. He wants to shout, to yell at Ren, to bring up old wounds but all he can do it blush and bite his tongue.

‘No,’ Ren replies, eyes fixed at a point over Hux’s shoulder.

Hux cringes as he writes the order down. He can’t stand tea without milk himself, no matter the blend. It’s something of a calming little ritual, sitting with a cup of tea and watching the milk swirl as he stirs it. Not that he’s been drinking much tea lately although he refuses to think about that, the way that’s he’s been favouring the bitter taste of coffee. That he’d picked up the same shitty instant stuff that _he’d_ used to drink…

He’s pouring the boiling water through the strainer, watching the leaves float to the surface before dropping back down when it slips out. ‘I thought you didn’t like tea.’

He regrets it as soon as he’s said it, snapping his mouth closed with a click and almost spilling boiling water over his hand. He knows who Ren is and he’s pretty sure Ren knows who he is, after all, he’s practically the same as he was even 5 years ago - only with larger dark circles he’s carefully layered concealer over and, to his horror, a few tiny wrinkles at his brow. Still, neither of them has acknowledged that they aren’t strangers out loud until then and Hux swallows waiting for Ren to sneer at him or to realise who Hux is and storm out of the shop. To be rejected again, as always.

‘I’ve changed,’ Ren replies after a pause, looking up at Hux through his hair as he sorts through a pile of change in his palm. He slides each cent over the countertop to Hux with a smirk as if he knows exactly how much pain he’s causing (as usual) and Hux counts every coin before stuffing them into the register.

He slides Ren’s tray over the counter, staring down at his hands rather than up at Ren. He can’t bear it, even these few moments of being close to him are too much – painful in more ways than one. A reminder of the goods times - of slipping an arm around Ren’s shoulders as they’d both laughed at a movie, running his fingers up the smooth skin on the inside of Ren’s thighs, pressing his nose into Ren’s hair. But it also shows him how much he’s missed, all of the little things.

He turns away, half-relieved at not having to look or deal with Ren anymore, half-miserable for the same reason. His hands fumble for something to do, finally landing on his discarded cloth while his mind fumble for something to say – anything to keep talking to Ren. To not let this slip past him.

‘Come and sit with me?’ Ren’s voice is soft and unsure, completely different from what he’s been like so far. It’s exactly what Hux had been hoping to hear, strangely. It catches Hux’s attention at least, has him nodding and hopping over the counter with a last glance at the break room door and out of the window at the pouring rain. He can surely spare a few minutes – there’s not likely to be any customers in this weather, he decides.

Ren pauses for a moment, seeming to be deciding where to sit. Not one to ever be a follower, Hux huffs and strides over to his favourite table next to the window and sinks down into the armchair. He aims a glance at Ren, schooling his features into cold blankness even as he burns with anger and embarrassment in equal parts. His challenge works and Ren takes

‘So,’ he finds himself saying, pretending to look out of the window as he watches Ren from the corner of his eye, ‘What have you been doing all these years?’ It’s a risky question – it opens the door for Ren asking him what he’s been doing, but Hux isn’t one for polite conversation preferring to cut straight to whatever interests him.

‘Oh you know,’ Ren shrugs noncommittally as if it is really nothing and fixing his gaze on a point beyond Hux’s shoulder still. Almost as if he has something to hide.

Hux narrows his eyes, leaning forward so that his elbows are resting on the table top. ‘I don’t actually. I don’t hear anything from you for 5 years and then suddenly here you are – at the exact coffee shop I work at when I’m on shift no less.’

‘I heard this place does pretty good tea,’ Ren smirks, bring his cup to his mouth and slurping on his tea obnoxiously, ‘fate something, something.’ His lips pull up into a smile, so self-satisfied that it tells Hux all he needs to know - that it wasn’t just fate, that Ren had planned this. Mostly likely to taunt him or embarrass him.

He slides his hands into the pockets of his jeans to stop them from shaking. It’s easier this way, this Kylo is almost the polar opposite of ‘Hux’s boyfriend’ Kylo, so it’s easy for Hux to push those old feeling away. Except that he almost misses the old Kylo, as much as he’d told Kylo how much he hated his style at the time. They’d been so close, one whole made of two halves. They’d hated each other, they’d shouted, they’d argued, they’d fought tooth and nail, and Hux had loved it. Had loved him. But he doesn’t know this man, gets a strange feeling from him – the way he barely seems able to look Hux in the face that makes Hux grit his teeth.

‘Just tell me what’s going on Ren, it’s been,’ he does the mental calculations, ‘5 years. 5 years exactly, since we broke up. Since you broke up with me to “find yourself” because I was “holding you back”,’ he says unable to hold back the disgust in his voice as he imitates Ren.

‘Hux.’

‘No. Tell me, Ren. Why are you really here?’

‘You’re not going to believe me,’ Ren says, yet again refusing to meet Hux’s eyes. ‘I-I became a wizard.’ Hux feels his eyes go wide as his breath hisses out in a gust from between his teeth.

‘So, let me get this straight,’ he says slowly, anger simmering beneath his skin. Ren is teasing him, he’s got to be, that’s the only explanation. Of course. ‘We broke up. 5 years ago to the day, in fact. I worked with my father for two years, got disowned, moved out to my own shitty apartment, bought a cat, started working towards my Business degree and got a dead end job here in 5 years. While you… you got a new look and became a wizard? Is that what you’re calling it?’ He can barely keep a straight face, can’t decide between wanting to slap Ren for actually making him say that out loud or laugh at him. _God_ , he’s missed this, being swept up in a debate or argument with Ren’s ridiculousness. So that nothing else matters, except laughing at Ren and boosting his own ego.

Except that Ren can’t seem to look him in the face and Hux feels his face fall, as his heart stops. ‘Yeah, I’m a wizard. My whole family practices magic but I don’t want to talk about them. And I realised I’m in love with you, even if I kind of hate you,’ Ren replies shyly as if it’s a perfectly normal thing for him to say.

‘So when you said you needed to find yourself,’ Hux feels himself say, ‘you were really breaking up with me to become a wizard.’

‘Correct,’ Ren says, and with a flick of his wrist floats his teacup and tray back across the shop and onto the counter next to the register. Hux watches, feeling his jaw drop, as he frantically looks for the glint of light reflecting of wires that he knows can’t be there. For anything to make this seem like something rational, something other than what it is.

‘Here’s my number,’ Ren says, producing a business card from somewhere inside what Hux now realises is his cloak. A wizard, his ex-boyfriend, wearing a cloak as if he’s from a fantasy novel and giving Hux his number. Hux can barely believe it, forcing his mouth closed with a click. ‘You should call me some time,’ Ren gets up, sparing Hux one last look before he strides out of the door.

All Hux can do is stare after him, fingers clutching the business card as if it too will disappear. But it seems like a normal business card (although why Kylo Ren has his own business cards is almost as strange as the whole being a wizard thing), with a phone number printed in a bold font across it. Hux feels himself frown, despite the wrinkles he knows it’ll cause. The bell above the door jungles again, drawing Hux’s attention away from the card finally.

‘If you uh want to,’ Ren says, awkwardly poking his face around the door. Even from this distance Hux can see that his cheeks are red, ‘We could get pizza some time and I could… try and explain.’

He takes a deep breath as Poe and Finn finally reappear from the break room laughing and smiling. ‘Sure.’


End file.
